Tripping the Light Fantastic (Mickey Smith, Jake Simmonds, Rose Tyler)
TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
(How Mickey Smith Got His Groove Back)
People were running around madly, dropping paperwork, typing feverishly and talking rather too loudly on their phones, with words like ‘Doom’ and ‘The End of the World’ thrown in - capitalisations and all.
Anyone who didn’t come to the office often might have suspected that they were in the middle of a major alien invasion but, to be perfectly honest, Torchwood was always like this.
Rose tore her eyes away from the preliminary report on the disappearing stars for a moment to watch the rest of the staff. There was a vague sense of uneasy watchfulness underscoring the panic.
They were all waiting for Mickey. He’d been locked in his office since the first reports had come in. There was a general consensus that he was probably on the phone to important experts on one thing or another.
“Still,” came the mutinous mutters, “It would be nice to know what we should be doing or at least what colour alert we ought to be on.”
After another hour and a few nervous knocks on his door, Rose decided it was time to put them all out of their misery, closed her email browser and got to her feet. Just as Jake did the same. They exchanged an amused glance.
Neither was particularly surprised when they pushed the door open and discovered that Mickey’s chair was rebelliously empty, his earpiece abandoned on his desk and his coffee cold.
“I’ll find him,” they said together.
* * * * *
In the end it was Rose who tracked him down first. Mostly due to luck.
Normally she would have put it down to the alien tracking software she’d hidden in Mickey’s food two months ago, but she knew Jake had chipped him before she’d even been stranded on this world and she had her suspicions that at least three other members of Torchwood had followed their example.
Not to mention Mickey’s last, rather disastrous, girlfriend.
He was probably the most bugged man in England which should have told them something.
But he also wasn’t stupid and, in the end, all that technology had only managed to narrow the search down to a three mile area near Brighton.
With no more trail to follow Rose had headed for the nearest beach, with a brief stop at a fish and chip shop and an unsettled feeling in her stomach.
It was always beaches.
Mickey was sat cross legged on the sand, staring up at the sky. Swathes of it now black and lifeless.
“Bunking off?” Rose asked, sitting down next to him and offering him the bag of chips.
“Yeah,” he took one with a grin.
“Teacher will be so mad at you. So how did you get out?”
“Out the window and down the drain pipe, barely a challenge.”
Which maybe would have been more true if his office hadn’t been on the ninth floor.
Rose laughed. If this was the middle of a nervous breakdown at least he was taking it in good humour.
“Sounds like you really wanted to get away, how come?” She tried to keep the question light but Mickey sighed anyway.
He looked at the sand for a second and then pushing himself back onto his elbows stared at the sky again.
“Thought I should come and see the problem for myself, there was too much light in the city.”
“And…” Rose prompted.
He was silent for a bit longer.
“I don’t know, it just never feels like it stops anymore. There’s always some crisis. I’m tired of it.”
“I thought this was what you wanted. Mickey Smith, defending the earth.”
“Yeah. I just didn’t expect there to be, well, you know, so much paperwork.”
Above them a few more stars winked out of existence.
“I think it was more fun when it was just me and Jake and a little white van…”
“And an army of marauding Cybermen…” Rose interrupted.
“Yeah, well Cybermen are easy. You should try being stuck in board meetings. God knows why I agreed to be the boss.”
“Well,” Rose suggested, “I think you like the attention.”
“Yeah?” Mickey said and, without warning, threw a handful of sand at her. In seconds the chips were abandoned and it was war.
It was only when they paused a few minutes later to catch their breath that Rose heard the insistent beeping from her earpiece. She rolled over to retrieve it.
“Yep?” She said breathlessly, pushing Mickey away.
“It’s Mitchell,” a nervous voice said, “It’s the Dimension Canon…”
“Yeah?” Rose said, interested now.
“All the lights have come on… I thought you should know.”
* * * * *
“It’s working,” Rose couldn’t hide her delight.
“Which,” Mitchell chided, “Given what else is going on right now, is probably a bad sign.”
“Oh, stop being so pessimistic,” Rose laughed. “Anyway, it’s perfect because now it doesn’t matter, I can go and find the Doctor and he can come and fix it.”
There was a momentary pause. The team were probably torn between confusion, hope and annoyance that Rose thought they couldn’t manage on their own. Mickey suspected it was mostly the latter.
One of the good things about Torchwood being a celebrated, global, alien-fighting agency was that people were battering down the doors to join, sometimes literally. They could have their pick of the best. Sadly the best also tended to be opinionated, arrogant and highly competitive. Which mostly worked fine but sometimes led to problems.
“Who said you’re the one that gets to go?” Jenkins asked, already bristling.
Rose turned to him with a look of disgust that a cleverer man would have known to quail beneath. But, technically a genius or not, clever was not the word Mickey would choose to describe Jenkins.
“I’m the only one who knows the Doctor and the only who would recognise the right Earth when I got there.”
“That’s not true. We’ve all had extensive training and we’re experienced in the field…”
“Are you saying I’m not?” Rose replied with a disbelieving laugh.
“No, of course not. I’m just saying that it’s not fair for you to assume that you’re going off alone on some big adventure while we all…”
“She’s not going alone,” Mickey interrupted firmly. “I’m going with her.”
Everybody in the room turned to him with a horrified look. It was happening worryingly often nowadays.
“But… But…” Jenkins started, his hands rising twitchily, clearly unable to express the sheer wrongness of what was happening.
“Oh for god’s sake, Mickey…” Rose started.
Which was, possibly thankfully, the moment Jake decided to step forward and take control.
“Right,” he said loudly, “Mickey, Rose and I, as the senior members of the team, will discuss what’s going to happen. The rest of you can bugger off to the water fountain and be as gossipy and indignant as you like until we’re finished.”
“What the hell was that?” Rose rounded on Mickey as soon as the door closed. “What do you mean you’re coming with me?”
“You’re not the only one who can go,” he told her.
“But you have responsibilities here…”
“And you don’t? What about Jackie or Pete? What about Tony?”
“That’s different. We need the Doctor, if I don’t find him then what if the sun goes out. I’m doing it for them.”
“You’re doing it for you, Rose, let’s be honest about that. You just want to get back to the Doctor.”
“Is that so bad? At least I’m not the one trying to run away from my inbox.”
“Nice,” Mickey replied. “It makes more sense for both of us to go, to protect each other, make sure we find him…”
“But what about Torchwood?” Rose turned to Jake. “Don’t you have something to say about this?”
“Nope,” he grinned. “I just stayed to watch the fireworks. Anyway he's the boss."
"Exactly," Mickey agreed.
"For better or worse," Jake added. "So I guess I’m stepping into the breach again.”
“Fine,” Rose said, turning and stormed from the room. “I’m going to see mum.”
Mickey watched her go, he wasn’t too worried, once she’d taken a minute to think about it he knew she’d calm down and be fine with him coming. The rest of Torchwood might be more of a problem. He fiddled with the Dimension Cannon for a second, wondering if Jake would speak first.
“You alright with this?” Mickey asked at last.
“Well, I’ve always been about a million times better at this leadership thing than you,” Jake replied thoughtfully.
“Yeah, don’t know why you ever let them make me the Director,” Mickey teased.
“Oh, I like to work behind the scenes. You know how it is. Every evil genius needs his handsome, heroic poster boy to distract people while he’s taking over the world.”
Mickey laughed.
“Right. I’ll remember that. You ever think we’d have been better off just sticking with the van?”
“I’m pretty certain after you tore it apart, built weapons from it, used it as a shield and then blew it up, that it wasn’t really an option,” Jake pointed out.
“Well we could have gotten another van.”
Jake shrugged, but didn’t venture an answer and after a while Mickey sighed.
“You want me to bring you a souvenir back from these parallel earths?”
“Well, if you happened to spot any handsome, gay look-alikes you could push them in my direction.”
“Deal,” Mickey told him. “And you’ll definitely be alright?”
“We’ll be fine. Go on, go, have fun, get your groove back, learn some stuff,” Jake told him with a smile.
* * * * *
As it turned out, there were a few things left for Mickey to learn…
(For example, when Torchwood told you technology was ‘almost perfect’; it was probably the first word you should be focusing on…)
Mickey had been a little worried about the first… jump? It was probably the best word they’d find for it. Even if it was all a bit Quantum Leap. He’d thought it might hurt. Instead it had just tingled a bit. Tingled and left him feeling wet and cold.
Of course, that was because he’d landed waist deep in the Thames.
“Oh, I’m going to kill them,” he moaned.
Rose, who had managed to land on a perfectly dry bit of shingled half-beach, was laughing.
“Everything alright?” Jake’s voice crackled through the Pan-Dimensional-Telecom system which they had put together from the mangled scraps of Rose’s old phone.
Mickey started to drag his way towards the shore.
“Mickey’s going to kill you,” Rose informed him, merrily.
“Well good to know the Dimension Cannon doesn’t mess with your basic personality,” Jake replied through the PDT. “You still got Jenkin’s list and, you know, clothes?”
There had been some doubt as to whether non living things would be transported through the dimensions with them. This had led to far too much giggling, probably because most the people working at Torchwood seemed to have the sense of humour of fifteen years olds… not to mention the hormones and sexual appetite.
“We’re still clothed,” Rose told him. “And we’ve got the list… we’ll get on it.”
The list included such important instructions as to check whether this Britain loved football and fish and chips, or if Eastenders was on the TV or whether they were being ruled by a prime minister, president or genetically enhanced monkey.
(Brand new footsteps in a brand new world can still be fun, even if you do have an important mission…)
Rose found Mickey flicking through a TV guide in a corner store. It was world number three and they’d split up to cover more ground, but she’d been too excited to wait to tell him about this.
“Yep, they’ve got Eastenders,” he said as he spotted her coming, “Apparently it’s a ‘gripping episode where we get to meet a brand new Mitchell, as Peggy finds that the son she thought had died at birth, isn’t as gone as she believed.’ I’m starting to think the Mitchell’s have never heard of contraception…”
He trailed off, spotting her face.
“What’s wrong?”
“You’re never going to believe this,” she told him, grabbing his hand and pulling him from the shop, “Come on. It’s awesome.”
They weaved through the streets, past shoppers and businessmen, not stopping until they reached the banks of the Thames.
“Notice anything?” Rose asked, hardly able to contain her glee.
“Are… are people walking on water? Oh my god, we ended up in a world where everyone's turned into Jesus.”
He sounded horrified, but Rose just pulled him down the nearest staircase and onto the water. It was firm, like walking on soft, springy grass.
“They put something in the water, it makes the top level solid, but underneath it’s just normal water - you can wash with it, drink it…” she told him.
“Why?” Mickey interrupted.
“No idea, I asked, but I don’t even think anyone here knows.”
Mickey was frowning at the surface, he looked annoyed. Rose was worried. She wasn’t always sure what to make of him now… how to reach him. Sometimes he felt more like Ricky than Mickey.
They’d been apart a long time and he’d seen a lot of things, done a lot of things. Jake and him still wouldn’t talk about some of them, not to her anyway. But then she knew all about not wanting to talk about things.
And then there had been the things they wouldn’t stop talking about - in-jokes and stories that she just couldn’t understand. It had been a horrifying glimpse at what it must have been like for Mickey every time he’d met up with the Doctor and her.
She’d even been jealous of Jake for a while, not that she’d wanted Mickey back, not like that, but Jake had been close to him in a way that she wasn’t anymore.
“It’s mad,” he muttered bending own to peer through the water. A fish was staring up at him. He bent down so far that for a moment their noses were almost touching. Then he started to laugh.
“It’s brilliant though.”
Straightening up, he matched Rose’s grin, his eyes glinting.
“Come on, we can make water angels,” she told him.
(Meeting your doppelgangers is quite often weird, humbling and slightly baffling...)
They met the first other Rose and Mickey on earth number four. They were still together, still working in a shop and a garage, and married, if not happily ever after, bickering lovingly ever after anyway. It had felt a bit odd.
Plus there had been quite a lot of freaking out.
But once they’d both pulled themselves back together, they’d managed to explain everything to their somewhat baffled counterparts.
* * * * *
The second time they managed to behave more like the trained professionals they were supposed to be.
Of course their doppelgangers had turned out to be super-special, wealthy, Nobel winning scientists. Who had worked it out before they’d even got half way through the speech they’d prepared.
Which had been a little humiliating, to say the least.
* * * * *
The sixth doppelgangers they’d stumbled across had been utterly mad. Useful. But mad.
And they never even got to meet themselves.
Mickey was England’s biggest and brightest football star and Rose was one of the Spice Girls. And they’d been married again. Rose wasn’t sure which part scared her the most.
It had proved useful for opening doors, but less handy for exploring unmolested. Mostly though, it led to lots of giggling. And some moaning.
“See,” Mickey complained as they huddled in an alleyway, hiding from their fans. “I knew that if I hadn’t sprained my ankle when we were thirteen I would have been a world renowned football player - and you never believed me.”
“Oi,” Rose said, poking him. “Remember who you’re talking to.”
“Chav Spice!” They cried together and Rose pulled the, apparently, international symbol for girl power - which seemed to be a slightly twisted version of the brownie salute.
“Oh my god, this is so weird,” Mickey said as they both doubled up in laughter.
It was only the slightly strangled, breathless, squeal from the entrance to the alleyway that warned them they had been discovered again and were probably in imminent danger of being mauled to death.
The only answer, obviously, was to run. That was always the answer.
“You can zap us out whenever you like, Jake,” Mickey panted as he ran.
“Not a chance,” Jake laughed at the other end, sounding brighter than he had in weeks, “This is far too much fun.
(It can always turn out that your problems are bigger than you expected…)
They were sat on a beach again, sharing chips.
“Why is it always beaches?” Rose said, shivering slightly.
This was the fourteenth Earth they’d tried. At least this one had fish and chips, they were starting to feel like a bit of a delicacy.
“Hey my intrepid explorers,” Jake’s voice crackled into the quiet peacefulness, “Any luck?”
“Nope. How’s things at your end?” Mickey asked.
“Same as normal. Half the team are having personal break downs of one sort or another, the public are moaning that we’re not doing anything, oh and I’ve got a new boyfriend. Don’t think it will last though.”
Jake was trying to sound amused and confident, but Mickey had spent two years travelling the world with him, it didn’t work. Instead he sounded tired and frustrated.
“You should slap the team and ignore the public…”
“Now I know you never went to those management seminars,” Jake interrupted with something close to a laugh. Beside him Rose grinned and then lifted her head to look at the sky again.
“Seminars are for losers, I told you that. And whoever this boyfriend is, he’s clearly not good enough for you.”
“Noted.”
“Any news on the stars?”
“Nope. Nothing useful anyway…”
“Mickey,” Rose murmured gripping his sleeve, but Jake was still talking.
“I’ve got to say, it’s getting kind of dark here,” he said, sounding more worried than he had in ages.
“Mickey,” Rose said again, her voice more urgent.
Mickey turned to look at her, she was staring at the sky, the sky where stars were beginning to blink into non-existence.
Neither of them could speak.
“What’s going on?” Jake asked. “Mickey? Rose? What’s going on?”
“The stars are going out,” Rose said softly.
There was a pause. A long pause.
“What does that mean?” Jake said.
“It means we really need the Doctor,” Rose told him.
(Whether a planet has fish and chips or not, doesn’t cover everything you need to know about their diet…)
Yay! Fish and chips!” Rose said enthusiastically and performed their patented ‘fish and chip’ dance.
Mickey was being a little more pessimistic and examining the menu. The girl behind the counter was eyeing them nervously.
“Nope,” he said a moment later running his finger down the list, “Just chips, no fish - at least I don’t think so, there’s a load of stuff on this menu that I don’t recognise - Lovett Pie… Finger Butty… Spotted Arse…”
“Mmmm…” Rose said, gripping his arm and leaning in close to him, “Sounds delicious.”
“I think we’ll just take some chips,” Mickey told the girl.
“You got your dining proof?” She asked.
“Errr…” Mickey said trying to think of an answer, “Sorry, left it at home.”
“Nobody leaves their dining proof at home,” the girl said blankly. “Nobody who’s got one.”
Mickey had a niggling sense that this was probably going to turn out to be vitally important. Like the earth where everyone had needed to carry a pet rabbit with them.
The girl, though, seemed oddly calm about the whole thing. He was just starting to hope that maybe that meant it wasn’t such a big deal when the police arrived. Apparently the girl was calm because she’d pressed a panic button ages ago.
“Don’t have dining proof,” the girl told them, “thought they must be from one of the herds.”
Before they knew what was happening, or had a chance to plan, they’d been tied, hooded and bundled into a van. And the last thing Mickey knew he was whacked on the head.
* * * * *
“You awake yet?” Mickey asked, his voice muffled.
“Think so,” Rose replied.
Her head was pounding and she desperately wanted to rub it, which would have been a lot easier if her hands hadn’t been tied behind her back. The ground was noisy and rumbling, which, she thought a moment later, probably meant they were still in the van. Obviously.
“How long was I unconscious?” She asked.
“No idea.”
“Can Jake get us out?”
“Can’t get through to him. I think the PDT got knocked out when they took us. I should be able to fix it, but…”
We’ll need to escape first, she thought.
Her mind raced through everything that had happened.
“Did that girl say herds?”
“Yep,” there was an odd note to Mickey’s voice.
“Oh god. And it’s definitely just down to us to get out of this?”
“Yeah. Makes your heart race a bit though, doesn’t it?” There was that same note again, it sounded like excitement.
* * * * *
They hadn’t managed to come up with any concrete plans by the time the van stopped and they were unceremoniously pulled from it. The masks were ripped free and they blinked for a second against the light.
Then someone was pushing Rose’s head sideways and examining her neck.
“No brands,” a man said. “Think they’re wild?”
“In good condition, if they’re wild,” the woman examining Rose offered.
“We’re not wild,” Mickey said loudly and clearly. “And what the hell is going on.”
There was a loud smacking sound as the man slapped him.
“No talking.”
Rose looked sideways at Mickey, he was grinning.
“Sorry, where we’re from, we’re allowed to say what ever we want - can’t bloody shut anyone up. Even when we’re bound, tied and gagged,” he finished loudly. Which seemed an odd thing to say.
They were about to hit him again, when Rose decided it was time to get some attention herself.
“Yeah, he’s right,” she said. “And what do you mean by herds and brands? Why are you treating us like cows? Do you eat people?”
“Spotty bottom,” Mickey pointed out.
“That’s just disgusting,” Rose said with a grimace in his direction.
The woman suddenly gripped her face and twisted it back towards her, leaning close.
“How dare you judge us? We’re only doing what’s necessary to protect the human race.”
Which, was just surprising enough to plunge both Mickey and Rose into silence. A deep enough silence that she suddenly heard Jake say, quite clearly:
“Nearly got you.”
Mickey winked at her and smiled at the man, hovering uncertainly now in front of him.
“You definitely shouldn’t have hit me, knocked everything back into place.”
“What?”
And then the tingling was back and they were gone.
(Sometimes the universe is just incredible…)
It was night time but all the street lamps had been turned off, they weren’t really needed, the sky was blazing.
Comets were streaming across it, too big to be shooting stars and trailing colours in their wake - red and green and blue and gold and about a million shades in between.
Maybe it was the start of an alien invasion.
“Maybe this is what happens after the stars go out,” Rose murmured but without much real fear.
In fact there wasn’t much fear anywhere, people were confused and nervous but at the moment they weren’t really scared. Instead they were staring up in wonder at the sky, their faces lit by the colours above. Like watching fireworks but gloriously silent.
“What’s happening?” Jake asked over the PDT. “You two haven’t said anything in two minutes, which is really weird… I was timing you both… Two minutes and twenty five seconds…”
“Sorry,” Mickey told him, “It’s… it’s hard to explain, but god it’s beautiful.”
“Okay, you’re really rubbish at describing things, you know,” Jake moaned.
“And yet, you’re always at the end of this thing.”
“Yeah? Well you told me to break up with my boyfriend, I’m bored.”
“There's comets, Jake,” Rose interrupted before Mickey could respond. “The sky’s filled with comets, they look really close and they’re all these incredible colours - it’s like, I don’t know, the Northern Lights or something but even better…”
“Thanks Rose, at least one of you is useful.”
“I wish you could see it,” Mickey told him.
(But every now and then the day job just has to get in the way…)
This earth was definitely looking quieter than most of the ones they’d visited. It had a horrible, derelict look about it and so far they’d only seen one person, scurrying away. It was probably hardly worth exploring, unless something cataclysmic had happened to their planet, which, Rose realised a moment later, she’d thought far too cheerfully.
But that was the thing, despite the danger and the stars going out and that feeling that she was just one step away from seeing the Doctor again she was enjoying herself. And looking around was fun.
“Come on, you’re having a good time,” she said, poking Mickey in the ribs, just like she’d used to a lifetime ago when she’d dragged him to movies he hadn’t wanted to see.
“Yeah, guess I am,” he laughed.
Their high spirits were probably, Rose thought later, just asking for trouble to find them. Still when they turned the corner and ran into a Cyberman, it was definitely a shock.
“Excellent,” Mickey said.
“Not really the right response.”
“You will be upgraded,” the Cyberman said, but Mickey ignoring him, grinned at hr.
“Come on, I’m good at Cybermen.”
Then he grabbed her hand and they were running and it was sort of like being with the Doctor again.
After a few streets they’d managed to lose it, Cybermen not being the fastest monsters around. They stood for a second gathering their breath.
“Everything alright?” Jake asked.
“Everything’s wonderful,” Mickey said before Rose could respond.
“Oh yes, we’ve just landed on a world full of Cybermen and, apparently, you’ve gone mad,” she poked him in the chest, though it wasn’t with any real malice.
“Come on, I’ll whip up a few guns out of abandoned cars, then you and me, liberating earth.”
“Should I feel jealous?” Jake asked. “And also you know, stars going out, we’ll just sit here, twiddling our thumbs. In the dark.”
“Don’t worry,” Mickey told him, “Won’t take long and the Doctor’s world is still years behind us, plenty of time yet. Anyway, you should come and join us. Can’t fight Cybermen without my main man.”
Jake laughed.
“Oh stop being all manly and heroic and tempting. You’ll turn me gay.”
And Rose couldn’t help but smile; there was something infectious about Mickey’s mood.
(And home is just where the next adventure is…)
Everyone was laughing and Mickey had been hugged at least three times already, even by the Doctor… or one of them. There was a breathless, dancing feel in the air.
They’d saved the universe… again. And, right now, that felt fantastic.
Rose caught him, throwing her arms around his neck with a grin and he couldn’t resist lifting her off her feet and spinning her around. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d done that.
As he let her down, she pulled away slightly so she could look in his eyes. She smiled at him.
“You’re not going back are you?” Rose asked, her eyes worried, despite the smile.
“Nah, I just can’t face going through the messages on my answering machine,” he joked. “Anyway, you know, same old brand new world.”
She laughed and planted a soft, happy kiss onto his lips.
* * * * * *
“Urrggh,” Jack moaned, “Thought I got rid of you.”
“So,” Mickey said, matching Jack’s stride, “All this, ‘outside the government’ stuff, that means no paperwork right?”
“Well,” Jack replied. “There’s some paperwork, but I mostly get Ianto to do it.”
“Perfect,” Mickey said with a grin.
* * * * * *
“So is this actually the Doctor?” Jake asked, sounding resigned, but unflustered. He hadn’t seemed that surprised that Mickey hadn’t come back with them.
“Sort of,” Rose replied with a nervous grin in the Doctor’s direction. It had been an enjoyable, if confusing evening. “I mean, I think he is.”
The Doctor, the new new Doctor, was rocking backwards and forwards on the balls of his feet, staring around with unbridled curiosity. She could practically see his fingers twitching to get his hands on things.
“Well. Can always do with another genius and we have just had a position for a technical whiz kid open - so welcome to my team, Doctor.”
Jake reached out his hand and the Doctor seized it gladly, shaking it, as he stepped forwards, his eyes already fixed on what he wanted to play with first. Then he paused.
“Wait. Your team?”
Jake winked at her.
(How Mickey Smith Got His Groove Back)
People were running around madly, dropping paperwork, typing feverishly and talking rather too loudly on their phones, with words like ‘Doom’ and ‘The End of the World’ thrown in - capitalisations and all.
Anyone who didn’t come to the office often might have suspected that they were in the middle of a major alien invasion but, to be perfectly honest, Torchwood was always like this.
Rose tore her eyes away from the preliminary report on the disappearing stars for a moment to watch the rest of the staff. There was a vague sense of uneasy watchfulness underscoring the panic.
They were all waiting for Mickey. He’d been locked in his office since the first reports had come in. There was a general consensus that he was probably on the phone to important experts on one thing or another.
“Still,” came the mutinous mutters, “It would be nice to know what we should be doing or at least what colour alert we ought to be on.”
After another hour and a few nervous knocks on his door, Rose decided it was time to put them all out of their misery, closed her email browser and got to her feet. Just as Jake did the same. They exchanged an amused glance.
Neither was particularly surprised when they pushed the door open and discovered that Mickey’s chair was rebelliously empty, his earpiece abandoned on his desk and his coffee cold.
“I’ll find him,” they said together.
* * * * *
In the end it was Rose who tracked him down first. Mostly due to luck.
Normally she would have put it down to the alien tracking software she’d hidden in Mickey’s food two months ago, but she knew Jake had chipped him before she’d even been stranded on this world and she had her suspicions that at least three other members of Torchwood had followed their example.
Not to mention Mickey’s last, rather disastrous, girlfriend.
He was probably the most bugged man in England which should have told them something.
But he also wasn’t stupid and, in the end, all that technology had only managed to narrow the search down to a three mile area near Brighton.
With no more trail to follow Rose had headed for the nearest beach, with a brief stop at a fish and chip shop and an unsettled feeling in her stomach.
It was always beaches.
Mickey was sat cross legged on the sand, staring up at the sky. Swathes of it now black and lifeless.
“Bunking off?” Rose asked, sitting down next to him and offering him the bag of chips.
“Yeah,” he took one with a grin.
“Teacher will be so mad at you. So how did you get out?”
“Out the window and down the drain pipe, barely a challenge.”
Which maybe would have been more true if his office hadn’t been on the ninth floor.
Rose laughed. If this was the middle of a nervous breakdown at least he was taking it in good humour.
“Sounds like you really wanted to get away, how come?” She tried to keep the question light but Mickey sighed anyway.
He looked at the sand for a second and then pushing himself back onto his elbows stared at the sky again.
“Thought I should come and see the problem for myself, there was too much light in the city.”
“And…” Rose prompted.
He was silent for a bit longer.
“I don’t know, it just never feels like it stops anymore. There’s always some crisis. I’m tired of it.”
“I thought this was what you wanted. Mickey Smith, defending the earth.”
“Yeah. I just didn’t expect there to be, well, you know, so much paperwork.”
Above them a few more stars winked out of existence.
“I think it was more fun when it was just me and Jake and a little white van…”
“And an army of marauding Cybermen…” Rose interrupted.
“Yeah, well Cybermen are easy. You should try being stuck in board meetings. God knows why I agreed to be the boss.”
“Well,” Rose suggested, “I think you like the attention.”
“Yeah?” Mickey said and, without warning, threw a handful of sand at her. In seconds the chips were abandoned and it was war.
It was only when they paused a few minutes later to catch their breath that Rose heard the insistent beeping from her earpiece. She rolled over to retrieve it.
“Yep?” She said breathlessly, pushing Mickey away.
“It’s Mitchell,” a nervous voice said, “It’s the Dimension Canon…”
“Yeah?” Rose said, interested now.
“All the lights have come on… I thought you should know.”
* * * * *
“It’s working,” Rose couldn’t hide her delight.
“Which,” Mitchell chided, “Given what else is going on right now, is probably a bad sign.”
“Oh, stop being so pessimistic,” Rose laughed. “Anyway, it’s perfect because now it doesn’t matter, I can go and find the Doctor and he can come and fix it.”
There was a momentary pause. The team were probably torn between confusion, hope and annoyance that Rose thought they couldn’t manage on their own. Mickey suspected it was mostly the latter.
One of the good things about Torchwood being a celebrated, global, alien-fighting agency was that people were battering down the doors to join, sometimes literally. They could have their pick of the best. Sadly the best also tended to be opinionated, arrogant and highly competitive. Which mostly worked fine but sometimes led to problems.
“Who said you’re the one that gets to go?” Jenkins asked, already bristling.
Rose turned to him with a look of disgust that a cleverer man would have known to quail beneath. But, technically a genius or not, clever was not the word Mickey would choose to describe Jenkins.
“I’m the only one who knows the Doctor and the only who would recognise the right Earth when I got there.”
“That’s not true. We’ve all had extensive training and we’re experienced in the field…”
“Are you saying I’m not?” Rose replied with a disbelieving laugh.
“No, of course not. I’m just saying that it’s not fair for you to assume that you’re going off alone on some big adventure while we all…”
“She’s not going alone,” Mickey interrupted firmly. “I’m going with her.”
Everybody in the room turned to him with a horrified look. It was happening worryingly often nowadays.
“But… But…” Jenkins started, his hands rising twitchily, clearly unable to express the sheer wrongness of what was happening.
“Oh for god’s sake, Mickey…” Rose started.
Which was, possibly thankfully, the moment Jake decided to step forward and take control.
“Right,” he said loudly, “Mickey, Rose and I, as the senior members of the team, will discuss what’s going to happen. The rest of you can bugger off to the water fountain and be as gossipy and indignant as you like until we’re finished.”
“What the hell was that?” Rose rounded on Mickey as soon as the door closed. “What do you mean you’re coming with me?”
“You’re not the only one who can go,” he told her.
“But you have responsibilities here…”
“And you don’t? What about Jackie or Pete? What about Tony?”
“That’s different. We need the Doctor, if I don’t find him then what if the sun goes out. I’m doing it for them.”
“You’re doing it for you, Rose, let’s be honest about that. You just want to get back to the Doctor.”
“Is that so bad? At least I’m not the one trying to run away from my inbox.”
“Nice,” Mickey replied. “It makes more sense for both of us to go, to protect each other, make sure we find him…”
“But what about Torchwood?” Rose turned to Jake. “Don’t you have something to say about this?”
“Nope,” he grinned. “I just stayed to watch the fireworks. Anyway he's the boss."
"Exactly," Mickey agreed.
"For better or worse," Jake added. "So I guess I’m stepping into the breach again.”
“Fine,” Rose said, turning and stormed from the room. “I’m going to see mum.”
Mickey watched her go, he wasn’t too worried, once she’d taken a minute to think about it he knew she’d calm down and be fine with him coming. The rest of Torchwood might be more of a problem. He fiddled with the Dimension Cannon for a second, wondering if Jake would speak first.
“You alright with this?” Mickey asked at last.
“Well, I’ve always been about a million times better at this leadership thing than you,” Jake replied thoughtfully.
“Yeah, don’t know why you ever let them make me the Director,” Mickey teased.
“Oh, I like to work behind the scenes. You know how it is. Every evil genius needs his handsome, heroic poster boy to distract people while he’s taking over the world.”
Mickey laughed.
“Right. I’ll remember that. You ever think we’d have been better off just sticking with the van?”
“I’m pretty certain after you tore it apart, built weapons from it, used it as a shield and then blew it up, that it wasn’t really an option,” Jake pointed out.
“Well we could have gotten another van.”
Jake shrugged, but didn’t venture an answer and after a while Mickey sighed.
“You want me to bring you a souvenir back from these parallel earths?”
“Well, if you happened to spot any handsome, gay look-alikes you could push them in my direction.”
“Deal,” Mickey told him. “And you’ll definitely be alright?”
“We’ll be fine. Go on, go, have fun, get your groove back, learn some stuff,” Jake told him with a smile.
* * * * *
As it turned out, there were a few things left for Mickey to learn…
(For example, when Torchwood told you technology was ‘almost perfect’; it was probably the first word you should be focusing on…)
Mickey had been a little worried about the first… jump? It was probably the best word they’d find for it. Even if it was all a bit Quantum Leap. He’d thought it might hurt. Instead it had just tingled a bit. Tingled and left him feeling wet and cold.
Of course, that was because he’d landed waist deep in the Thames.
“Oh, I’m going to kill them,” he moaned.
Rose, who had managed to land on a perfectly dry bit of shingled half-beach, was laughing.
“Everything alright?” Jake’s voice crackled through the Pan-Dimensional-Telecom system which they had put together from the mangled scraps of Rose’s old phone.
Mickey started to drag his way towards the shore.
“Mickey’s going to kill you,” Rose informed him, merrily.
“Well good to know the Dimension Cannon doesn’t mess with your basic personality,” Jake replied through the PDT. “You still got Jenkin’s list and, you know, clothes?”
There had been some doubt as to whether non living things would be transported through the dimensions with them. This had led to far too much giggling, probably because most the people working at Torchwood seemed to have the sense of humour of fifteen years olds… not to mention the hormones and sexual appetite.
“We’re still clothed,” Rose told him. “And we’ve got the list… we’ll get on it.”
The list included such important instructions as to check whether this Britain loved football and fish and chips, or if Eastenders was on the TV or whether they were being ruled by a prime minister, president or genetically enhanced monkey.
(Brand new footsteps in a brand new world can still be fun, even if you do have an important mission…)
Rose found Mickey flicking through a TV guide in a corner store. It was world number three and they’d split up to cover more ground, but she’d been too excited to wait to tell him about this.
“Yep, they’ve got Eastenders,” he said as he spotted her coming, “Apparently it’s a ‘gripping episode where we get to meet a brand new Mitchell, as Peggy finds that the son she thought had died at birth, isn’t as gone as she believed.’ I’m starting to think the Mitchell’s have never heard of contraception…”
He trailed off, spotting her face.
“What’s wrong?”
“You’re never going to believe this,” she told him, grabbing his hand and pulling him from the shop, “Come on. It’s awesome.”
They weaved through the streets, past shoppers and businessmen, not stopping until they reached the banks of the Thames.
“Notice anything?” Rose asked, hardly able to contain her glee.
“Are… are people walking on water? Oh my god, we ended up in a world where everyone's turned into Jesus.”
He sounded horrified, but Rose just pulled him down the nearest staircase and onto the water. It was firm, like walking on soft, springy grass.
“They put something in the water, it makes the top level solid, but underneath it’s just normal water - you can wash with it, drink it…” she told him.
“Why?” Mickey interrupted.
“No idea, I asked, but I don’t even think anyone here knows.”
Mickey was frowning at the surface, he looked annoyed. Rose was worried. She wasn’t always sure what to make of him now… how to reach him. Sometimes he felt more like Ricky than Mickey.
They’d been apart a long time and he’d seen a lot of things, done a lot of things. Jake and him still wouldn’t talk about some of them, not to her anyway. But then she knew all about not wanting to talk about things.
And then there had been the things they wouldn’t stop talking about - in-jokes and stories that she just couldn’t understand. It had been a horrifying glimpse at what it must have been like for Mickey every time he’d met up with the Doctor and her.
She’d even been jealous of Jake for a while, not that she’d wanted Mickey back, not like that, but Jake had been close to him in a way that she wasn’t anymore.
“It’s mad,” he muttered bending own to peer through the water. A fish was staring up at him. He bent down so far that for a moment their noses were almost touching. Then he started to laugh.
“It’s brilliant though.”
Straightening up, he matched Rose’s grin, his eyes glinting.
“Come on, we can make water angels,” she told him.
(Meeting your doppelgangers is quite often weird, humbling and slightly baffling...)
They met the first other Rose and Mickey on earth number four. They were still together, still working in a shop and a garage, and married, if not happily ever after, bickering lovingly ever after anyway. It had felt a bit odd.
Plus there had been quite a lot of freaking out.
But once they’d both pulled themselves back together, they’d managed to explain everything to their somewhat baffled counterparts.
* * * * *
The second time they managed to behave more like the trained professionals they were supposed to be.
Of course their doppelgangers had turned out to be super-special, wealthy, Nobel winning scientists. Who had worked it out before they’d even got half way through the speech they’d prepared.
Which had been a little humiliating, to say the least.
* * * * *
The sixth doppelgangers they’d stumbled across had been utterly mad. Useful. But mad.
And they never even got to meet themselves.
Mickey was England’s biggest and brightest football star and Rose was one of the Spice Girls. And they’d been married again. Rose wasn’t sure which part scared her the most.
It had proved useful for opening doors, but less handy for exploring unmolested. Mostly though, it led to lots of giggling. And some moaning.
“See,” Mickey complained as they huddled in an alleyway, hiding from their fans. “I knew that if I hadn’t sprained my ankle when we were thirteen I would have been a world renowned football player - and you never believed me.”
“Oi,” Rose said, poking him. “Remember who you’re talking to.”
“Chav Spice!” They cried together and Rose pulled the, apparently, international symbol for girl power - which seemed to be a slightly twisted version of the brownie salute.
“Oh my god, this is so weird,” Mickey said as they both doubled up in laughter.
It was only the slightly strangled, breathless, squeal from the entrance to the alleyway that warned them they had been discovered again and were probably in imminent danger of being mauled to death.
The only answer, obviously, was to run. That was always the answer.
“You can zap us out whenever you like, Jake,” Mickey panted as he ran.
“Not a chance,” Jake laughed at the other end, sounding brighter than he had in weeks, “This is far too much fun.
(It can always turn out that your problems are bigger than you expected…)
They were sat on a beach again, sharing chips.
“Why is it always beaches?” Rose said, shivering slightly.
This was the fourteenth Earth they’d tried. At least this one had fish and chips, they were starting to feel like a bit of a delicacy.
“Hey my intrepid explorers,” Jake’s voice crackled into the quiet peacefulness, “Any luck?”
“Nope. How’s things at your end?” Mickey asked.
“Same as normal. Half the team are having personal break downs of one sort or another, the public are moaning that we’re not doing anything, oh and I’ve got a new boyfriend. Don’t think it will last though.”
Jake was trying to sound amused and confident, but Mickey had spent two years travelling the world with him, it didn’t work. Instead he sounded tired and frustrated.
“You should slap the team and ignore the public…”
“Now I know you never went to those management seminars,” Jake interrupted with something close to a laugh. Beside him Rose grinned and then lifted her head to look at the sky again.
“Seminars are for losers, I told you that. And whoever this boyfriend is, he’s clearly not good enough for you.”
“Noted.”
“Any news on the stars?”
“Nope. Nothing useful anyway…”
“Mickey,” Rose murmured gripping his sleeve, but Jake was still talking.
“I’ve got to say, it’s getting kind of dark here,” he said, sounding more worried than he had in ages.
“Mickey,” Rose said again, her voice more urgent.
Mickey turned to look at her, she was staring at the sky, the sky where stars were beginning to blink into non-existence.
Neither of them could speak.
“What’s going on?” Jake asked. “Mickey? Rose? What’s going on?”
“The stars are going out,” Rose said softly.
There was a pause. A long pause.
“What does that mean?” Jake said.
“It means we really need the Doctor,” Rose told him.
(Whether a planet has fish and chips or not, doesn’t cover everything you need to know about their diet…)
Yay! Fish and chips!” Rose said enthusiastically and performed their patented ‘fish and chip’ dance.
Mickey was being a little more pessimistic and examining the menu. The girl behind the counter was eyeing them nervously.
“Nope,” he said a moment later running his finger down the list, “Just chips, no fish - at least I don’t think so, there’s a load of stuff on this menu that I don’t recognise - Lovett Pie… Finger Butty… Spotted Arse…”
“Mmmm…” Rose said, gripping his arm and leaning in close to him, “Sounds delicious.”
“I think we’ll just take some chips,” Mickey told the girl.
“You got your dining proof?” She asked.
“Errr…” Mickey said trying to think of an answer, “Sorry, left it at home.”
“Nobody leaves their dining proof at home,” the girl said blankly. “Nobody who’s got one.”
Mickey had a niggling sense that this was probably going to turn out to be vitally important. Like the earth where everyone had needed to carry a pet rabbit with them.
The girl, though, seemed oddly calm about the whole thing. He was just starting to hope that maybe that meant it wasn’t such a big deal when the police arrived. Apparently the girl was calm because she’d pressed a panic button ages ago.
“Don’t have dining proof,” the girl told them, “thought they must be from one of the herds.”
Before they knew what was happening, or had a chance to plan, they’d been tied, hooded and bundled into a van. And the last thing Mickey knew he was whacked on the head.
* * * * *
“You awake yet?” Mickey asked, his voice muffled.
“Think so,” Rose replied.
Her head was pounding and she desperately wanted to rub it, which would have been a lot easier if her hands hadn’t been tied behind her back. The ground was noisy and rumbling, which, she thought a moment later, probably meant they were still in the van. Obviously.
“How long was I unconscious?” She asked.
“No idea.”
“Can Jake get us out?”
“Can’t get through to him. I think the PDT got knocked out when they took us. I should be able to fix it, but…”
We’ll need to escape first, she thought.
Her mind raced through everything that had happened.
“Did that girl say herds?”
“Yep,” there was an odd note to Mickey’s voice.
“Oh god. And it’s definitely just down to us to get out of this?”
“Yeah. Makes your heart race a bit though, doesn’t it?” There was that same note again, it sounded like excitement.
* * * * *
They hadn’t managed to come up with any concrete plans by the time the van stopped and they were unceremoniously pulled from it. The masks were ripped free and they blinked for a second against the light.
Then someone was pushing Rose’s head sideways and examining her neck.
“No brands,” a man said. “Think they’re wild?”
“In good condition, if they’re wild,” the woman examining Rose offered.
“We’re not wild,” Mickey said loudly and clearly. “And what the hell is going on.”
There was a loud smacking sound as the man slapped him.
“No talking.”
Rose looked sideways at Mickey, he was grinning.
“Sorry, where we’re from, we’re allowed to say what ever we want - can’t bloody shut anyone up. Even when we’re bound, tied and gagged,” he finished loudly. Which seemed an odd thing to say.
They were about to hit him again, when Rose decided it was time to get some attention herself.
“Yeah, he’s right,” she said. “And what do you mean by herds and brands? Why are you treating us like cows? Do you eat people?”
“Spotty bottom,” Mickey pointed out.
“That’s just disgusting,” Rose said with a grimace in his direction.
The woman suddenly gripped her face and twisted it back towards her, leaning close.
“How dare you judge us? We’re only doing what’s necessary to protect the human race.”
Which, was just surprising enough to plunge both Mickey and Rose into silence. A deep enough silence that she suddenly heard Jake say, quite clearly:
“Nearly got you.”
Mickey winked at her and smiled at the man, hovering uncertainly now in front of him.
“You definitely shouldn’t have hit me, knocked everything back into place.”
“What?”
And then the tingling was back and they were gone.
(Sometimes the universe is just incredible…)
It was night time but all the street lamps had been turned off, they weren’t really needed, the sky was blazing.
Comets were streaming across it, too big to be shooting stars and trailing colours in their wake - red and green and blue and gold and about a million shades in between.
Maybe it was the start of an alien invasion.
“Maybe this is what happens after the stars go out,” Rose murmured but without much real fear.
In fact there wasn’t much fear anywhere, people were confused and nervous but at the moment they weren’t really scared. Instead they were staring up in wonder at the sky, their faces lit by the colours above. Like watching fireworks but gloriously silent.
“What’s happening?” Jake asked over the PDT. “You two haven’t said anything in two minutes, which is really weird… I was timing you both… Two minutes and twenty five seconds…”
“Sorry,” Mickey told him, “It’s… it’s hard to explain, but god it’s beautiful.”
“Okay, you’re really rubbish at describing things, you know,” Jake moaned.
“And yet, you’re always at the end of this thing.”
“Yeah? Well you told me to break up with my boyfriend, I’m bored.”
“There's comets, Jake,” Rose interrupted before Mickey could respond. “The sky’s filled with comets, they look really close and they’re all these incredible colours - it’s like, I don’t know, the Northern Lights or something but even better…”
“Thanks Rose, at least one of you is useful.”
“I wish you could see it,” Mickey told him.
(But every now and then the day job just has to get in the way…)
This earth was definitely looking quieter than most of the ones they’d visited. It had a horrible, derelict look about it and so far they’d only seen one person, scurrying away. It was probably hardly worth exploring, unless something cataclysmic had happened to their planet, which, Rose realised a moment later, she’d thought far too cheerfully.
But that was the thing, despite the danger and the stars going out and that feeling that she was just one step away from seeing the Doctor again she was enjoying herself. And looking around was fun.
“Come on, you’re having a good time,” she said, poking Mickey in the ribs, just like she’d used to a lifetime ago when she’d dragged him to movies he hadn’t wanted to see.
“Yeah, guess I am,” he laughed.
Their high spirits were probably, Rose thought later, just asking for trouble to find them. Still when they turned the corner and ran into a Cyberman, it was definitely a shock.
“Excellent,” Mickey said.
“Not really the right response.”
“You will be upgraded,” the Cyberman said, but Mickey ignoring him, grinned at hr.
“Come on, I’m good at Cybermen.”
Then he grabbed her hand and they were running and it was sort of like being with the Doctor again.
After a few streets they’d managed to lose it, Cybermen not being the fastest monsters around. They stood for a second gathering their breath.
“Everything alright?” Jake asked.
“Everything’s wonderful,” Mickey said before Rose could respond.
“Oh yes, we’ve just landed on a world full of Cybermen and, apparently, you’ve gone mad,” she poked him in the chest, though it wasn’t with any real malice.
“Come on, I’ll whip up a few guns out of abandoned cars, then you and me, liberating earth.”
“Should I feel jealous?” Jake asked. “And also you know, stars going out, we’ll just sit here, twiddling our thumbs. In the dark.”
“Don’t worry,” Mickey told him, “Won’t take long and the Doctor’s world is still years behind us, plenty of time yet. Anyway, you should come and join us. Can’t fight Cybermen without my main man.”
Jake laughed.
“Oh stop being all manly and heroic and tempting. You’ll turn me gay.”
And Rose couldn’t help but smile; there was something infectious about Mickey’s mood.
(And home is just where the next adventure is…)
Everyone was laughing and Mickey had been hugged at least three times already, even by the Doctor… or one of them. There was a breathless, dancing feel in the air.
They’d saved the universe… again. And, right now, that felt fantastic.
Rose caught him, throwing her arms around his neck with a grin and he couldn’t resist lifting her off her feet and spinning her around. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d done that.
As he let her down, she pulled away slightly so she could look in his eyes. She smiled at him.
“You’re not going back are you?” Rose asked, her eyes worried, despite the smile.
“Nah, I just can’t face going through the messages on my answering machine,” he joked. “Anyway, you know, same old brand new world.”
She laughed and planted a soft, happy kiss onto his lips.
* * * * * *
“Urrggh,” Jack moaned, “Thought I got rid of you.”
“So,” Mickey said, matching Jack’s stride, “All this, ‘outside the government’ stuff, that means no paperwork right?”
“Well,” Jack replied. “There’s some paperwork, but I mostly get Ianto to do it.”
“Perfect,” Mickey said with a grin.
* * * * * *
“So is this actually the Doctor?” Jake asked, sounding resigned, but unflustered. He hadn’t seemed that surprised that Mickey hadn’t come back with them.
“Sort of,” Rose replied with a nervous grin in the Doctor’s direction. It had been an enjoyable, if confusing evening. “I mean, I think he is.”
The Doctor, the new new Doctor, was rocking backwards and forwards on the balls of his feet, staring around with unbridled curiosity. She could practically see his fingers twitching to get his hands on things.
“Well. Can always do with another genius and we have just had a position for a technical whiz kid open - so welcome to my team, Doctor.”
Jake reached out his hand and the Doctor seized it gladly, shaking it, as he stepped forwards, his eyes already fixed on what he wanted to play with first. Then he paused.
“Wait. Your team?”
Jake winked at her.